The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental organisation created on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan. The SCO is the successor of the <b>Shanghai Five</b> mechanism created in 1996 for political, security and cooperation dialogue. The main goals of the SCO are strengthening mutual confidence and good-neighbourly relations among the member countries; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade and economy, science and technology, culture as well as education, energy, transportation, tourism, environmental protection and other fields; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region, to move towards the establishment of a new, democratic, just and rational political and economic international order.

The SCO structure is made of the Heads of State Council (HSC), the highest decision-making body and the Heads of Government Council (HGC) responsible for tracing strategies for multilateral cooperation and priority directions within the organisation’s framework. Both HSC and HGC have annual meetings. Following mechanisms are the meetings on the level of Speakers of Parliament, Secretaries of Security Councils, Foreign Ministers, Ministers of Defence, Emergency Relief, Economy, Transportation, Culture, Education, Healthcare, Heads of Law Enforcement Agencies, Supreme Courts and Courts of Arbitration, Prosecutors General. The Organisation has two permanent bodies – the Secretariat in Beijing and the Regional Antiterrorist Structure in Tashken